


Peripatetic

by Sin_of_the_Fallen



Category: Fairy Tail
Genre: Leaving Home, Other, Post-Chapter 416
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-07
Updated: 2015-02-07
Packaged: 2018-03-10 21:51:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,011
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3304694
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sin_of_the_Fallen/pseuds/Sin_of_the_Fallen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Why stay, when there is nothing to hold you back?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Peripatetic

**Author's Note:**

> I get Mashima likes demonstrating there's different ways to be strong/brave, and it's great that he makes characters that have strengths in nonconventional areas. But family means nobody gets left behind, and Lucy got the RAW end of the deal.  
> So, I thought, why not let Lucy set out on her own? Let her sail forth and go grow strong on her own, like everyone else, instead of confining her to being a journalist when everybody else left her behind to grow stronger.  
> Just a little one-shot of my dissatisfaction over how Mashima railroads Lucy into these situations. (Do not get me started on how NOBODY else who uses Holder magic gets their key item(s) taken away from them in battle- and that's if they ever get taken away- to the extent Lucy has.)

 

Lucy Heartfilia knows about being ( ~~abandoned~~ ) left behind by those she loves. It is something she is intimately acquainted with. But that doesn’t dull the pain of her Guild disbanding, of her friends and family leaving and telling her to stay ~~(alone.)~~

 

They don’t all leave at once, and most at least say goodbye. They say they’re going to become stronger, that this is something only they can do, that they have to do this on their own. What they say isn’t what Lucy can see and hear underneath the determined bravado. Her loved ones are terrified; they feel too weak for the threats lying ahead. They’re running scared, and they’re _furious_ that they're scared and running.

 

Lucy knows about that too; feeling too angry to sit still, but so scared you felt like freezing in place anyways. She remembers an arranged marriage to a scumbag that had difficulty remaining proper in public and couldn’t understand the word no. It’s different from what they face now, but the fact that would have been a slow, quiet extinguishment of what made her Lucy doesn’t matter; death is death. Hers just would have been a different kind of death if she hadn’t escaped. Lucy understands, so she lets them run as fast and as far as they can from Magnolia, from her.

 

She stays, because she had been asked to watch over them (because she doesn’t know how to leave the only place where she’s ever belonged.) So she looks out for her own as best she can. She dries eyes, comforts the grieving and hurt, and wishes them luck when they inevitably leave. Lucy does what she was asked to do with a unwavering dedication, until, one day, she realizes no one is left except her.

 

Lucy doesn’t know how to watch over people who leave. They promise to write, to send word, ~~to let her know her family isn't dead _(motherfathermichelleAQUARIUS)_  ~~ but her letters go unanswered. She wouldn’t even know they were still alive if she didn’t hear rumors about so-and-so destroying this and that.

 

That night, when she can no longer ignore it, she asks herself in the dark of her cold, silent apartment, _How do you protect something that is no longer there?_

 

* * *

 

 

Lucy remains in Magnolia ~~(alone)~~. She works a great deal more now, because there is nothing else to do and she doesn’t want to be in her apartment more than necessary. And apparently, when all you do is work, the dividends start multiplying.

 

She stares at her bank statement dully as she sits in the bank’s office, because even with her rent, the surplus is ludicrous. Lucy quickly finds, after doing some quick calculations, she is amassing this surplus of money -that she has no idea what to do with- because Team Natsu no longer eats every spare Jewel she has. As she sits there, wondering what she should do with it all, a thought breaks through the apathy that has clung to her tightly since that day.

 

 _What am I doing?_ _Th_ _ere is nothing here._ **_Why stay here when everything is somewhere else?_**

****

“...Why?”

 

“I’m sorry miss, why what?”

 

Lucy Heartfilia looks up from her bank statement, and says,

 

“I’d like to make some arrangements concerning my account with this bank. As a mage about to leave town for an unknown amount of time, how long can you keep my account open and untouched before I’m declared dead?”

 

* * *

 

 

It takes time to arrange her affairs, and to have a will written up. She sells off a great deal of her things, stores what's left with an understanding Virgo, ends her lease, and barters for supplies and many Silver Keys from a man she knows is as scrupulous as a demon.

 

Antlia, Argo Navis, Auriga, Caelum, Canes Venatici, Delphinus, Fornax, Grus, Reticulum, and Telescopium enter her service. The procurer gives her a knowing look when she lists the Silver Keys she desires, for those aren’t combat-oriented Spirits, but with a large amount of money and some errands she runs without question, she acquires everything she wanted within a month.

 

Now she has one final task to finish before she can go.

 

“Ma’am, can you hold onto these letters for me?”

 

Her landlady looks upset and worried, frowning at her unhappily with her arms crossed.

 

“You won’t stay girl? What happens when your friends come looking?”

 

Lucy smiles, her eyes already seeking out the sunset-lit ocean with palpable longing.

 

“No, I no longer have a reason to. I’m all that’s left, and I can’t stay here anymore.”

 

Dying slowly has never been something Lucy has wanted to do. And she will not stay where that fate is inevitable.

 

“And if they come looking, just tell them I sailed West and give them the letter with their name on it. Or the whole stack of letters if they want them all.”

 

“...Since you’ve been renting from me for so long, I guess I can. And make sure to come back Ms. Heartfilia. It’s hard to find such loyal renters.”

 

The woman took the thick packet of letters wrapped carefully in a blue ribbon Lucy had once used for her side-ponytail. She pushed her unruly hair behind her ear at the sight of the ribbon, a faint sense of nostalgia and longing rising at the sight of it.

 

“Thank you ma’am... I will come back eventually though. And I’ll take the apartment again if you haven’t found somebody by then.”

 

Her landlady, now her former landlady, huffed.

 

“Don’t hold your breath girl. Now get going, the tide will be going out soon.”

 

Lucy flashed her one last smile before taking off for the docks, a grin slowly stretching across her face as she got closer to leaving behind the town that had wrapped its hands around her neck.

 

She arrived at the waterfront as the sunset turned the world a brilliant red, out of breath, but alive in a way she hadn’t been in too long.

 

* * *

 

 

_Here there is nothing._

 

_So, why stay?_

 

_The answer is, you don’t._


End file.
